Kentucky made a bold move last month when it hosted several top recruits at Madison Square Garden... Kentucky continued the trend by hosting several recruits for its blowout win over Hofstra at Barclays Center.

Kentucky signee Nick Richards, the 6-foot-11 big man from The Patrick School, was on hand after also attending the win over Michigan State in the Champions Classic.

Louis King, the 6-8 Class of 2018 small forward from Hudson (N.J.) Catholic who also attended the Kentucky-Michigan State game, was also[sic] at Barclays Center. Wildcats’ assistant Joel Justus scouted him earlier this fall, but Kentucky has yet to offer.

“[Kentucky] will come back to visit and attend some games,” King’s mother said.

Bryce Wills, a 6-5 Class of 2019 point guard from Iona Prep (N.Y.), also attended and is now being courted by Kentucky.

“Bryce Wills brings a dynamic of high IQ, athleticism and leadership,” PSA Cardinals coach Marc Carter said. “His best years are ahead of him. He’s a nightmare defensively with his length. Once he figures out how to dominate the mid-range game, the sky is the limit.”

That same event also happens to feature Class of 2017 Kentucky targets Hamidou Diallo, Mohamed Bamba and Kevin Knox.

“That’s what I think drew Kentucky to him,” Neumann-Goretti coach Carl Arrigale said Thursday on The 4 Quarters Podcast one day after Green dropped 37 points, including 24 after intermission, as his team beat Philadelphia rival Imhotep Charter, 87-73. “I think when they were going around recruiting these other kids, everybody wants to play with him. Everybody loves his mentality and the way he plays.

“So I think he will have some influence with some guys. Him and Mo are pretty close. Mo was at Quade’s announcement the night Quade announced, and I’m sure they’ll catch up down at City of Palms. I know he’s pretty close with Diallo, too. So I think he’s working a little bit behind the scenes. I’m sure he’s made some phone calls and some text messages and some stuff with those guys. He wants some players around him so he can be who he wants to be. So I’m sure he has an idea of who he wants to play with.”

COLUMBIA, S.C. – John Carroll (Bel Air, Md.) junior point guard Immanuel Quickley has played one play of one game so far this season.

On the opening tip of the season opener last month, Quickley grabbed the ball, darted down the floor and did a Euro-step to get to the basket.

But when he came down, Quickley rolled his ankle and dropped to the floor.

“I made the basket, but my ankle was hurt bad,” Quickley said. “I missed about 11 games. Today was my first game back.”

You’d never know it.

Quickley, who is ranked No. 1 among point guards and No. 11 overall in the ESPN, scored 24 points and dished out three assists to lead the Patriots past Providence Day (Charlotte, N.C.) Wednesday at the Chick-fil-A...

Calipari’s already-No. 1-ranked recruiting class of 2017 added its most highly touted member yet with Saturday’s commitment of Hamidou Diallo, the No. 10 player in the Scout.com rankings and another important piece to next season’s roster.

Assuming Diallo sticks around for the 2017-18 campaign (he’s eligible for this year’s NBA Draft), the 6-foot-5 shooting guard from Queens, N.Y., will give the Wildcats a dynamic weapon in the backcourt, which is likely to be decimated by departures after this season.

Diallo: No. 1 ranked shooting guard in the country, highly athletic player who excels at getting to the basket and has potential to be a lockdown perimeter defender. Diallo’s outside shot needs a lot of work...

Gilgeous-Alexander: No. 45 overall player in the class, according to Scout.com, and a 6-5 guard who is capable of playing on or off the ball.

Quade Green: No. 25 player in the Scout.com rankings and arguably the best floor leader in the country. Green, a 6-1 prospect who led the Nike circuit in assists and steals last summer, is likely to be UK’s starting point guard next season. As of now, he’s also likely to be the best outside shooter...

Nick Richards: No. 17 player in the Scout.com rankings and one of the best rebounders and post defenders in the class. 7-footer from Queens is still a bit raw offensively

Vanderbilt: No. 15 player in the Scout.com rankings and a versatile, 6-9 forward capable of playing on the wing. He was one of only eight players to averaged double digits in points (13.5) and rebounds (10.9) on the Nike circuit...

PJ Washington: No. 14 player in the Scout.com rankings and another versatile forward who could start right away. He also averaged a double-double on the Nike circuit and might be the best rebounding forward in the class. The 6-8 prospect is an efficient scorer who can play away from the basket, and he’s a high-IQ defender.

“It’s a really good class — the No. 1 class in the country,” said Daniels. “I don’t think it’s Calipari’s best class, by any means, but part of that is just because the 2017 group isn’t as good as some of the others that we’ve seen.

“There’s a lot of depth and a lot of athleticism. They need to add another wing shooter...

“I think that is going to have to be something that they address,” Daniels said.

Calipari could look to a graduate transfer or junior-college player to fill this role, or it’s possible that a solid shooter from the class of 2018 could reclassify, or a currently committed 2017 prospect might back out due to a coaching change or other circumstance late in the recruiting cycle.

The Patrick School (N.J.) will be without Kentucky-bound McDonald’s All-American big man Nick Richards for two games after he was ejected from Saturday night’s 42-38 victory over Union Catholic.

Richards and Dayton-bound power forward Jordan Pierce were involved in an altercation and both players were ejected. The 6-foot-11 Richards must now sit two games, including Sunday’s highly-anticipated game against Trevon Duval and IMG Academy at Roselle Catholic and Tuesday’s game against Plainfield.

Richards would be eligible to return for next Sunday’s game against 7-foot-1 junior Moses Brown and Archbishop Molloy in the Primetime Shootout at Roselle Catholic.

Celtics co-coach Chris Chavannes declined comment Saturday night.

(This game also featured Union Catholic holding the ball for 7 1/2 minutes in the fourth quarter. New Jersey has no shot clock.)

Celtics are the favorites to win the New Jersey Tournament of Champions title. The New Jersey playdowns begin Feb. 28.

We’ve added up the individual rankings for each of them — from Scout, Rivals, 247 Sports and ESPN — and come up with their final average position in the class nationally: No. 10 Hamidou Diallo, No. 13 Jarred Vanderbilt, No. 14 P.J. Washington, No. 16 Nick Richards, No. 24 Quade Green, No. 31 Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and No. 77 Jemarl Baker.

Of note: Diallo enrolled at Kentucky in January and practiced with the team but did not play, taking a redshirt half-season instead, so ESPN and Rivals removed him from their 2017 rankings.

Gilgeous-Alexander was a huge riser in 247 Sports’ final list, soaring to 19th overall and 5-star status. Analysts are farther apart on him than any other UK prospect, considering the combo guard from Canada is ranked as low as 39th by Scout.

Joel Justus will scout recruits in the 2019, 2020, and 2021 classes in the FIBA Americas U16 Championships, which starts Wednesday and ends on Sunday. Targets on Team USA include 2019 power forwards Vernon Carey Jr. and James Wiseman; small forward Wendell Moore; 2020 point guards RJ Hampton and Jalen Suggs; and 2020 power forward Isaiah Todd.

Also on Team USA: 2021 point guard Zion Harmon, who hails from Bowling Green and is considered one of the most promising players in the entire country. Last summer, the 5’8″ Harmon became the first seventh grader ever to compete in the 17U division of Nike EYBL and then led his school to their first state title. He’s the only 2021 prospect on the 16U team, but as he told USA Today’s High School Sports’ site, age is just a number to him.

“Age doesn’t really mean nothing to me. I’m a Christian and in the Bible, they have people that rule kingdoms when they’re 13 years old,” he said. “It’s really about how fast you can mature, not how long you’ve been on this earth… When I get on the court I feel like it’s basketball and we all just playing.”

USA! USA U19 World Cup Team played its first exhibition game since arriving in Egypt, defeating Lithuania 89-66...

P.J. Washington, who will be a freshman next season in Lexington, scored 18 points while his future teammate Hamidou Diallo tallied 17 of his own.

Game took place less than 24 hours after the team had traveled from Colorado to Egypt.

“We’re not where we need to be defensively. That is the whole key to what we’re doing,” Calipari said. “Offensively, I thought we shared the ball, but we still held it a couple of times where we didn’t need to hold it. We need to have that ball bouncing around the court.”

Kentucky has yet to land a commitment from that 2018 class, but that’s not #uncommon...

Who will be the first class of 2018 prospect to commit to Kentucky?Five-star point guard Immanuel Quickley — a 6-foot-3 prospect from the Baltimore area — was the first point guard in the 2018 class to earn a scholarship offer from UK

Where does UK stand with its other top targets in the class of 2018?Cats look to be in good shape to challenge for the No. 1 national recruiting ranking once again. Quickley is one of six players in the 2018 class that have attracted considerable attention from Calipari. The other five: shooting guard Romeo Langford, wing players Cameron Reddish and Zion Williamson, and power forwards Marvin Bagley and Bol Bol.

The No. 2 overall player in Scout.com’s rankings, Bol is the most recent recipient of a UK offer, and Evan Daniels told the Herald-Leader recently that Kentucky and Arizona are the two schools with the most buzz in his recruitment. Others have told the Herald-Leader that the UK offer vaulted Calipari’s Wildcats to the top of his list. However, Bol said at Team USA camp that he might be the last person in the class to make a college decision.

“They’re in about the same position they are every year,” Scout.com director of recruiting Evan Daniels said of the Wildcats and coach John Calipari. “They’re in great shape with (5-star point guard) Immanuel Quickley — he’s a guy I think they’ll end up getting — and they’ve got six other offers out to all top-tier guys, and they’re in the mix with all of them. So I think they’re positioned pretty nicely for a normal, loaded Kentucky recruiting class.”

Daniels’ biggest question for the Cats heading into the July recruiting period is related to Calipari’s recent stint coaching Team USA in the FIBA U19 World Cup. He had six 5-star recruits in training camp and four on the team in Egypt (including Quickely, who started). Three of the top five players in the Class of 2018 — No. 2 Bol Bol, No. 4 Cameron Reddish and No. 5 Romeo Langford — tried out for Calipari’s national team.

“One started (Reddish), one was cut (Bol) and one didn’t play very much (Langford),” Daniels said, “so I’m curious how all of those dynamics factor in — and if they do or don’t.”